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Page 19
"I do see the difference between this and those Academy pictures," said
Bettina, "even though it is so queer, and painted in such colors."
"And I," "And I," quickly added Barbara and Margery.
"I think those angels' faces are interesting," continued Barbara. "They
are not all just alike, but look as if each had some thought of his own.
They seem proud of their burden as they hold up the Madonna and Child."
"Oh, nonsense, Barbara! you are putting too much imagination in there,"
exclaimed Malcom. "I think old Cimabue did do something, but it is an
awfully bad picture, after all. There is one thing, though; it is not so
flat as that Academy _Magdalen_. The child's head seems round, and I do
think his face has a bit of expression."
So they looked and chatted on, and took little note of coming and going
tourists, who glanced with curiosity from them to the old dark picture
above, and then back to the fresh, eager, beautiful faces,--the greater
part ever finding in the latter the keener attraction.
"I always have one thought when I look at this," finally said Mr.
Sumner, "that perhaps will be interesting to you, and linger in your
minds. This _Madonna and Child_ seems to form a link and also to mark a
division between all those which went before it in Christian art and all
those that have followed. It is the last Byzantine Madonna and is the
first of the long, noble list which has come from the hands of artists
who have lived since the thirteenth century.
"We will not stay here longer now, for I know you will come again more
than once to study it. There is much valuable historic art in this
church which you will understand better when you have learned more.
Yonder in the Strozzi Chapel is some of the very best work of an old
painter called Orcagna, while here in the choir are notable frescoes by
Ghirlandajo; but now I shall take you down these steps between the two
into the cloister and there we will talk of Giotto. I know how busy you
have been reading about this wonderful old master, for I could not help
hearing snatches of your talk about him all through the past week. His
figure looms up most important of all among the early painters of
Florence. You know how Cimabue, clad in his scarlet robe and hood,
insignia of nobility, riding out one day to a little town lying on one
of yonder blue hills, found a little, dark-faced shepherd-boy watching
his father's sheep, and amusing himself by drawing a picture of one,
with only a sharp stone for a pencil. Interested in the boy, he took
pains to visit his father and gain his permission to take him as a pupil
to Florence. So Giotto came to begin his art-life. What are you thinking
of, little Margery?"
"Only a bit of Dante's writing which I read with mother the other day,"
said she, blushing. "I was thinking how little Cimabue then thought that
this poor, ignorant shepherd-boy would ever cause these lines to be
written:--
"Cimabue thought to lord it over painting's field:
But now the cry is _Giotto_, and his name's eclipsed."
"Yes, indeed! Giotto did eclipse his master's fame, for he went so much
farther,--but only in the same path, however; so we must not take from
Cimabue any of the honor that is due him. But for Giotto the old
Byzantine method of painting on all gold backgrounds was abolished. This
boy, though born of peasants, was not only gifted with keen powers of
observation of nature and mankind and a devotion to the representation
of things truly as they are, but, beyond and above all this, with one
other quality that made his work of incalculable worth to the people
among whom he painted. This was a delicate appreciation of the true
relations between earthly and spiritual things.
"Before him, as we have seen, all art was most unnatural and
monastic,--utterly destitute of sympathy with the feelings of the common
people. Giotto changed all this. He made the Christ-child a loving baby;
the Madonna a loving mother into whose joy and suffering all mothers'
hearts could enter; angels were servants of men; miracles were wrought
by God because He loved and desired to help men; the pictured men and
women were like themselves because they smiled and grieved and acted
even as they did. All this change Giotto made in the spirit of pictures;
and in the ways of painting he also wrought a complete revolution.
'There are no such things as gold backgrounds in nature,' he said; 'I
will have my people out of doors or in their homes.' And so he painted
the blue sky and rocks and trees and grass, and dressed his men and
women in pure, fresh colors, and represented them as if engaged in home
duties in the house or in the field. He introduced many characters into
his story pictures,--angel visitants, neighbors, wandering shepherds,
and even domestic animals. He brought the art of painting _down_ into
the minds and hearts of all who looked upon them."
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